Unit 202 Sampling: Bases
Bullseye
First base, single pair of weavers to start.
Slath: Buff
Inner: Norbury
Middle: Old French
Outer: White willow
Evaluation: good dome shape, pleased with the weave. Weave was quite tight but got a bit confused and skipped a stitch in places.
Went on to become a practice waste basket with fitching experiment.
3x3 decorative slath
single pair of weavers to start with a decorative cross in the centre.
Slath: Dark Dicks
Centre: Norbury willow
Middle: White willow
Outer: Dark Dicks
Evaluation:missed a stich tying in the slath (saw it at the end, annoying). Forgot to do invisible joins on butt to butt change.
Went on to become the sampler basket.
3x3 two tone base
Paired start, two tone pattern.
Slath: Buff
Centre: Norbury
Outer: White willow
Evaluation: a good first attempt at a paired start. Weave was reasonably tight, joins could be neater.
Went on to become the fruit basket.
4x4 base
Paired start using similar colour material for base and weavers.
Slath: Dark Dicks
Weavers: Norbury
Evaluation: tried out weaving the opposite way to the previous two bases. Pleased with the result.Not as domed as a result of working inside out.
Went on to become the berry basket.
French randing base - three colour
Took material home to experiment with some French Randing after class. Used the three colours in thirds which produced a spiral pattern.
Slath: Dark Dicks
Randing: Norbury, Old French, white willow
Evaluation: Didn't take quite enough material home, so excuse the pegs! Started tip to tip which was quite challenging to keep tight, especially after two days of the course.
However, I managed to finish this base off a few months later and it became the Hairy Shopper. I experimented with pairing in the side stakes to start spacing them out before up setting the basket. I think this is something I'll do with baskets.
French randing base - alternate colour
Homework base for one of the shoppers. All material was 5ft as an experiment and to use up some chunky 5ft White Willow that had been soaked. Alternated white/ green.
Slath (3x3): White willow
Randing: White willow, Dicky meadows
Evaluation: I thought this would produce two fine spirals of colour so was delighted when it actually made a pretty flower pattern. The chunkier material was harder to control and took longer as I wound every length to ensure they were flexible enough.
Bullseye 5ft material
Homework base for the shopper that ended up being a kindling basket. I wanted to use up some on the edge Old French that had started to go a bit mouldy on the inside of the bundle as it had sat for too long.
Slath (3x3): White willow
Pairing: White willow 5ft, Old French 4ft
Evaluation: This base ended up bigger than I'd hope but using longer willow will obviously produce a wider base. The chunkier material also left more gaps and the joins are more obvious.
Mini-base
I had material left over after making the shopper and kindling baskets, so I thought I'll make a little basket.
Making a little basket was harder than I thought and I used the same size base stakes as the other two big baskets.
Slath (3x3 with decorative X): white willow, Old French
Evaluation: I think using finer base stakes for a little basket would work better in terms of finished product and actually working the willow.
Paired base into a three rod wale foot
I saw a traditional basket at Acton Scott that went from pairing into a double row of three-rod waling to create a foot. I tried to replicate it with this base. However, I think that basket was made from some sort of cane.
Slath (3x3): Dicky meadows 5ft
Pairers start: Norbury
Pairers and walers: Black French
Evaluation:
- Overall it worked quite well with the waling to separate the stakes but I think I would use chunkier walers and just do one round (need to ask Gill if that would work).
- First time using fresh willow and it was slippery to work with and kinked unexpectedly in place yet was more supple in general.